


Almost

by cate-lynne (catelynne)



Category: Stitchers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 11:51:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4786325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catelynne/pseuds/cate-lynne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a Stitcher is fun…most of the time.  Until a Stitch starts to go wrong and your life is on the line.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Almost

“Come on, kid,” Cameron’s voice crackled through the earpiece. “You gotta make the bounce.”

“C-Cameron,” I choked out.  “I c-can’t…”

“Shit,” Cameron muttered before speaking to me again. “You can do it, cupcake.  Enter your exit pincode.”

I tried to stop the shaking in my hands long enough to press the buttons I could dimly feel under my physical fingertips.  But it wasn’t working.

“You need to do it NOW, (Y/N)!” Cameron shouted, just as I hit enter and felt myself returning to my body.

My eyes, my real eyes, flew open and I sat up, gasping.  I couldn’t breathe, something was wrong.  Unable to find anything to hold on to, I fell back, getting a mouthful of water.  And then I was choking, still unable to breathe.  Dimly, I heard shouting around me but nothing was coming into focus.

Until a pair of hands, a little rough and too hot for comfort were on my shoulders, pulling me up and away from the water.  Then my face, cold and wet, was pressed into a chest that was rising and falling rapidly while Cameron’s voice suddenly broke through the haze of panic and confusion that had wrapped around my mind.

“You’re alright.  (Y/N), can you hear me?  You’re alright.”  His arms shifted, lifting me up and out of the tank.  I felt my weight fall against him as he carried me away to safety.

…

When my eyes opened again, I recognized the inside of Cameron’s bedroom.  Sitting up, I searched through my memories, trying to figure out what had happened.  A sharp pain in my skull, accompanied by a flash of memory (shaking, cold, drowning) put an end to that.  A small whimper escaped my lips as I raised a hand to clutch at the area of my head that was suddenly pounding.

“(Y/N)?”

“What happened?” I murmured, feeling the urge to hide under the mountain of blankets that were kind of smothering me.

“What do you remember?” Cameron asked gently, using the hand not tucked under his chin to brush some hair out of my face.

“Um…” I thought back, trying to ignore the throbbing in my skull.  “The stitch didn’t go well.  I bounced…?”

He was silent for a moment, not looking at me.  His fingers played absently with a strand of my hair. 

“Cameron?  What happened?”

“You made the bounce in time,” he sighed, looking at me from between long eyelashes.  “Barely.  But you, um, kind of drowned in the Fish Tank.”

“What?”

“I got you out before you lost consciousness, but…” he wasn’t looking at me anymore and it was making me nervous.

“But what, Cameron?”

“But you can’t stitch anymore.”

“What?!” I gasped, trying to sit up.  “Did Maggie say that?”

“No,” he said, gently pushing me back against his pillows before suddenly climbing under the covers with me.  “I did.”

“But why?  I’m sorry-”

“It’s not your fault,” he whispered, pulling me against him.

“B-”

“Shh,” he held me tightly against him.  “It’s not your fault.  I just…I can’t have you get hurt.  I need you safe.”

“I will be-”

“I almost lost you today,” he interrupted.  “A few more minutes and I would have been in a world without you.  That’s not a world that I want to live in, (Y/N).”

Tears sprang to my eyes and I buried my face in his shirt.

“Almost is too close,” he whispered in my hair before placing a kiss on the top of my head.


End file.
